The subject matter disclosed herein relates to techniques for extracting biological molecules from an existing sample, such as a pathology slide.
Medical researchers often obtain patient samples, such as biopsies, and preserve such samples as pathology slides, core samples, etc., for diagnosis and visualization. When such samples contain particular regions of interest, the researchers may wish to extract materials from these regions of interest for additional studies. For example, researchers may examine a slide including both tumor and normal cells, and may wish to extract DNA from only the tumor cells in the slide to assess the DNA for the presence of particular mutations. However, extraction of material from only a region of interest and without damaging the material is complex. For example, in laser capture micro-dissection, a focused laser beam ablates tissue to define a region of interest but damage the surrounding material. Other techniques may involve tissue encapsulation, which introduces an additional material to the sample.